This invention relates generally to devices for automatically attaching sails to and releasing sails from a stay on a sailboat and, more particularly, relates to a magazine for storing suitably rigged sails in readiness for use and for quickly attaching and releasing the sails from a wire or cable stay.
Sailboats typically use sails, called stay sails, attached to the standing rigging to increase the sail carrying ability of a sailboat. The most common such sail is the jib, a triangular sail rigged to the forestay at the bow of the sailboat. The leading edge or luff of a stay sail is commonly secured to a wire or cable stay by means of spring loaded clips referred to as "hanks" which are attached to the luff of the sail and which clip onto the wire stay. Various types of spring loaded hanks are known, but the most common has a U-shaped portion which fits onto the stay, and which is closed by a spring-loaded piston, the piston being manually retracted to affix or release the sail. To attach a sail to a stay it is necessary to clip the individual sail hanks to the stay one at a time.
Changing wind conditions often dictate or require sail or jib changes to maintain sailing efficiency. Further, the wind forces may require that a sail or jib be changed to maintain boat safety. Conventional methods of changing a sail or jib requiring one or more crewmembers to go to the foredeck, sometimes in rough seas, can be extremely uncomfortable or even hazardous.
In racing sailboats, the time required to change a sail or jib can make a difference in the outcome of the race. In cruising situations involving crewmembers of varying ability and experience, the process of changing a sail or jib can create threats to both the sailboat and the crew safety.
Sailors have sought various means to ease the rigging of stay sails, addressing both the design of the hank and devices to hold the hanks in readiness for use. U.S. Pat. No. 2,925,798 issued on Feb. 23, 1960 to Stephen Colgate discloses a magazine comprising an elongated member of channel cross section upon which the hanks may be preset, such magazine then being placed on or over the stay with all the hanks thereby being positioned for use. When the sail is hoisted each hank in turn slides up and off of the magazine and a spring-loaded latching piston snaps closed, attaching the hank to the stay. This allows a sail to be quickly attached to the stay but does not assist in its removal after use. The magazine must be manually rerigged by a crew member before it can be used with another sail.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,006,308 issued October 31 to Stephen Enke addresses the requirement to both attach and detach a sail. Enke discloses a fixture which is inserted in the stay itself, thereby modifying the stay to provide a thin web which allows a suitably designed hank to pass off the bottom of the fixture and onto a magazine device. To employ the invention disclosed by Enke the stay must be severed at its lower end and the fixture installed between the stay and its anchoring point on the deck. This introduces an additional potential for material failure, where in a major piece of standing rigging such as a forestay such failure could be disastrous for both the sailboat and its crew. Enke further discloses a hank designed to be employed with the fixture. This hank utilizes a narrow gap in the portion of the hank which encloses the stay when the sail is in use. This gap must be small to prevent the stay from being forced through the gap by the forces on the sail but at the same time the gap must be wide enough to pass over the web of the fixture disclosed by Enke. If the gap is widened to accommodate a thicker and therefore stronger fixture web, the likelihood of premature release from the stay increases. If the gap is narrowed to prevent premature release from the stay, the web must be likewise thinned, increasing the likelihood of failure of the fixture and thereby the stay.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,251,329 issued on May 17, 1966 to Graydon Smith discloses a jib attachment system which utilizes a fixture inserted between the end of a stay and its anchoring point on the deck and a suitably designed hank for use therewith. The fixture disclosed by Smith utilizes an off-axis track which guides the hank to a disconnect feature of the fixture. The axis defined by the stay itself is interrupted by the track, necessitating a second portion of the fixture to anchor the stay to the sailboat in line with the stay. This requires suitably strong materials which can withstand the forces placed on the device. As this apparatus is to be used in a wet or saltwater environment the material must also be corrosion resistant. Smith teaches that many such corrosion resistant materials are unsuitable for swaging onto a stay. Smith therefore further teaches an additional means to join suitable materials by threaded fittings to arrive at an apparatus which is sufficiently ductile at one point for attaching the stay thereto and sufficiently strong at another point to accommodate a thin web to allow disconnection of the hank from the stay. The apparatus as disclosed by Smith introduces off axis forces placed on the fixture, and an additional joint in the axis of the stay, both contributing to an increase in the potential for failure of the stay. The hank disclosed by Smith has an opening or gap in the perimeter of the portion which grips the stay when the sail is in use. This opening must be large enough to pass over the web of the fixture and, while the gap is displaced from the strain axis exerted by the sail to reduce the tendency of the stay to slip out of the opening, the same tradeoff shortcomings vis a vis the thickness of the fixture web are encountered as described hereinabove with regard to the hank disclosed by Enke.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,826,211 issued Jul. 30, 1974 to Jacob Hirsch discloses a single piece hank having a longitudinal channel for gripping the stay and an off-axis slot to allow passage of the stay when the hank is installed or removed from the stay. To attach the hank to a stay the crew member turns each hank to align the slot with the stay, passes the stay through the slot and into the longitudinal channel and realigns the hank to the stay. An additional feature disclosed by Hirsch allows one hank to turn another when the former is brought into contact with the latter hank, thereby automatically releasing the second hank from the stay. This allows a second sail to be raised and automatically displace a previous sail which then must be retrieved and manually prepared for reuse. No provision is suggested by Hirsch to allow for alternating between the two sails without rerigging the displaced sail by a crew member.